April 23, 2007

Dutch treat for fans of 'The Shield'

There’s no denying that the furious ball of energy known as Vic Mackey is the focal point of “The Shield” (9 p.m. Tuesday, FX).

But when the show, which began a typically stellar sixth season April 3, wraps up its seventh and final season some time next year, the character I may miss most is Holland “Dutch” Wagenbach, a dogged detective played by Jay Karnes.

Dutch, as he is universally known at the run-down police precinct referred to as the Barn, isn’t part of the swaggering anti-gang Strike Team that Mickey leads. He’s a guy who, one might guess, secretly wishes he were part of a team of elite FBI criminal profilers. Instead he often ends up investigating gang murders and other run-of-the-mill heinousness in the violent Farmington district of Los Angeles.

Yet his intelligence — and his sometimes shaky social skills — set Dutch apart from most other cops. But over time, thanks to the detective’s investigative skills, he has earned the respect of his fellow cops.

“It’s not as though he fits in exactly,” said Karnes in a recent phone interview. “People know who he is, and I think there’s a begrudging acknowledgment that he is good at what he does, even if what he does — detective work — is not as highly valued as what Mickey does, breaking down doors and all that.”

Karnes, a native of Omaha, is a longtime friend of “Shield” creator Shawn Ryan, who gave Karnes the pilot script in 2001. Karnes asked if there was a role for him in the drama and was surprised when Ryan mentioned Dutch.

“He said, ‘Let me do another pass at [the script] with you in mind.’” In the new version, Dutch was, as Karnes recalls Ryan saying, “‘you, except he’s not interested in history, he’s interested in crime.’”

Karnes laughs as he recalls his reaction. “This is me? What do you think of me?”

Still, Karnes has obvious affection for the character, who was initially partnered with senior detective Claudette Wyms (C.C.H. Pounder) for years. The complicated working relationship between the older female cop, who’s seen just about every kind of police misbehavior yet has managed to hang onto her moral center, and the eager yet sometimes clueless younger detective has been one of the best things about the show.

“You don’t often see that on TV, especially on cop shows, where there’s that [typical] partner dynamic,” Karnes said. The relationship “is so needy on his part, and that’s not something you see very often. But it’s not a maternal thing, he hasn’t turned her into a mommy figure. But he really needs her approval and her input. And at the same time they don’t turn him into putty.”

But Claudette has been put in charge of the Barn, which may strain Dutch’s working relationship with her.

“It’s interesting for Dutch because he never really had a lot of respect for [former Barn captain David] Aceveda. Dutch didn’t consider him a real cop,” Karnes said. “She is a real cop and he respects her. But it’ll be interesting to see what happens when she wants him to do something he doesn’t want to do.”

This season, Dutch’s partner is a lazy, often inept detective named Steve Billings (David Marciano). Dutch’s frustrations with Billings are often the source of the show’s rare but welcome comic relief.

“In seasons four and five, Dutch thinks that Billings is a clown and in a lot of ways, he is. Much to Dutch’s surprise, [this season] you begin to see other levels to Billings. In Season 6, Dutch develops a low, fetus-sized respect for Billings. Whether it will grow,” Karnes says with a laugh, “I don’t know.”

In the current season, Dutch is trying to mentor a younger cop named Tina Hanson (Paula Garces), purely from an altruistic desire to assist a new police officer — or so Dutch tells himself.

“I think he thinks on some level that he would do this for any cop, that it’s his job to mentor younger cops. The fact that he picks the hottest cop in the precinct — that’s a coincidence,” Karnes said. “But on another level, he is aware of what he’s doing and he kind of knows it’s not the noblest thing in the world.”

But the fact is, Dutch is a good guy, all things considered – he just doesn’t really know how else to meet, let alone impress, the opposite sex.

“Anyone who wants to impress someone they’re interested in is going to want to show them what they’re good at – and Dutch is good at solving crimes,” Karnes noted. “So it’s natural for him to want to show someone he’s attracted to what he’s good at. I’m not sure that really justifies it.”

Though trying to date an impressionable, younger co-worker might skirt the line of ethics, it’s nowhere near Dutch’s darkest hour, which took place in Season 3. In the midst of a frustrating investigation into a local serial killer, Dutch was being kept up at night by a loud stray cat. Partly out of desire to understand the mind of a murderer and partly out of darker urges that were never fully articulated, the normally affable Dutch eventually strangled the stray cat.

“Shawn Ryan called me and said, ‘The good news is David Mamet is directing a Dutch-heavy episode,’” Karnes recalled. “The bad news is, you’re going to strangle a cat in your underwear.’”

He said his sarcastic response was, “Great, count me in!”

“A lot of things had been building in him, but the writing is so great
that you could go from Season 1 and kind of see this arc to the cat
murder,” he continued. (For more on that, check out a YouTube clip called "Dutch's Breakdown").

He agrees that Dutch may have thought his action
might help him understand the mind of a killer, in particular
Farmington’s Cuddler Rapist, whom Dutch was investigating and who had
turned to murder.

“I think that was going through his head, but there was also the
screaming that would keep him awake every night,” Karnes said. “He
couldn’t sleep and he was going through this frustrating thing with the
Cuddler Rapist, who is a legitimate serial killer, and [in his mind,
Dutch] is going to be the guy who has the camera going when this guy
confesses. The people who he considers his peers – none of whom are at
the Barn – are going to see this.

“Then the serial killer just says, ‘You can’t help me, I’m done with
you,’ and it was over. The case gets shut down with no resolution.”

“I think he regretted it immediately,” Karnes said of Dutch’s darkest
moment. “I think he’s deeply ashamed of it. I think he blocks it out of
his mind – I don’t think he wants to examine what that means.”

Still, around the “Shield" set, Dutch’s worst moment gave rise to a bit
of gallows humor.

“There’s this joke that the final shot of ‘The
Shield’ will be of Vic Mackey,” Karnes said. “But the penultimate shot
is of Dutch coming home and unlocking his front door, unlocking a door
within his house, going down a set of steps to a group of people
chained up in various states of decomposition. And the final line [of
the scene] is, ‘Who had a good day?’”

This season, the diligent Dutch literally stumbled across a mass murder
in the first episode. It’s the case of a lifetime – yet, typical of the
way stories are told on “The Shield,” the murder investigation was, at
first, taken away from the Barn’s most skilled detective. But Karnes
said the murders “weave their way back into the story” and “eventually
tie back to other things that are going on” in Farmington.

Karnes, who’s 43, said he has no plans yet for what he’ll do after
shooting wraps on the “Shield’s” final episode late this year (that
last season will probably air in 2008). He said he’s thinking about, at
some point, going back to his first love, theater, which he took up at
University of Kansas in the 1980s. He never graduated from the
university – he’s still four hours short of a degree – but he does
state that “college was the best decade of my life.”

“I have a legitimate case to be made for me as the worst student in the
history of Kansas. The worst student who went to class and actually
participated,” he said.

After college, Karnes did lots of Shakespeare, and given the tragic
themes that permeate the FX show – loyalty, betrayal, greed, even the
murder of a close friend – in some sense, on “The Shield,” he’s still
working with Shakespearean themes.

“I’ve been friends with Shawn Ryan for a really long time,” he said.
“When I read the pilot, I just thought it was phenomenal. But looking
back on it – seeing the consistency of the storytelling and being aware
from other shows how difficult that is – there’s a part of me that’s
like, ‘Really? Shawn did this? My buddy Shawn?’”

“It’s a remarkable thing.”

NOTE: You may have noticed in Tuesday’s print version of the Watcher column on Jay Karnes that several names were spelled incorrectly. That was due to a production error.

Comments

Great interview! Dutch has been my favorite character since that episode toward the end of season one involving a serial killer. The killer had spent most of the episode mocking Dutch (in front of the rest of the barn), allowing Dutch and Claudette to build their case while the suspect showed off. Once he gets a confession, Dutch leaves the interrogation room to a hero's welcome, winning the respect of Mackey, Shane, etc. The real payoff comes a few scenes later, where Dutch breaks down and cries in his car, the killers jabs having really hurt him. Many other cop shows would have left us with the hero's welcome.

Hi Maureen, first I just want to say I love reading your columns, great job, and I'll be reading for a long time to come. But I just wanted to say be careful with the spoilers. A few weeks ago you printed what was going to happen on The Shield with Shane confessing to Vic about the murder. That has hurt my enjoyment of the show. Just a quick point, but in general keep up the great work!.

I think Dutch is the most interesting character on The Shield. The Strike Team is so over the top, that realistically, the majority of them would have been indicted by now (not that there haven't been real cops who've perpetrated similar acts). But while Vic's actions make him into a cartoonish anti-hero, Dutch's flaw make him human. I particularly liked the scene a few years ago, where he choked the kitten to watch the life leave its body. That was, creepily, the most memorable moment for me on the show. I'm waiting for a return to the dark side of Dutch Boy. BTB, what's up with the spelling errors in the paper? Vico Mickey? Caudette Weems? Jay Karens? Someone needs some new Voice recognition software.

All the names were correct in the story that I submitted to my editors. A glitch in the editing process further down the line meant that several names were changed by a rogue spellcheck procedure -- after the copy editors were done with the story.

Not the funnest day ever, given all the email I've been getting from Shield fans who think I've lost my mind (what's left of it anyway).

I gotta confess that as much as I like the Dutchboy, I find Claudette easily the more compelling character on The Shield or anywhere else on TV for that matter. She's a total rock, and it will be interesting to see if Dutch comes unmoored without her there to constantly keep him grounded. Dutch has a quirkiness that makes him intersting, but he pales next to Claudette. If there was a Shield spin-off, I'd definitely rather see it based on her rather than him.

Although if Dutch ends up being the father of Danny's baby, he would totally rock. But you know that he's not...

David Marciano's character is an interesting cast addition from last season, and it's not his first cop role in series TV. He played a much tougher, more intelligent, and far more admirable detective Ray Vecchio in the greatest Chicago-set series ever, Due South.

Like Tom Coombe above, it is that plot and Karnes' acting that defined Dutch for me.
When Dutch broke down crying I wanted to reach out to him through my screen.

I think it was at the end of last season that Claudette put a call to Robbery Homicide so they'd make an offer to Dutch. For a moment I got worried, I can't imagine the Barn without him. Without Tina or Billings? Sure. But no Wagenbach? I can't (bring myself to) picture it.

But then, The Shield is so well done that maybe they could find a way to make me accept a Dutch-free-Barn. I prefer not to think about it though. I still haven't recovered from Lem's murder.

"he really needs her approval and her input. And at the same time they don’t turn him into putty.”"

This reminds me in the s3 finale after Wyms pursued the murder case of the addicted public defender alienating everyone (and screwing her chance of promotion to captain then) when Dutch told Claudette she'd have to be perfect, she says she will be and he (too) seriously says "trust me it's hard " and she cracks up.
So very Dutch.

I like that he's been upfront with her when they disagreed, they didn't have drawn out 'angst' spanning over a season.
Issues? sure, but they have such a strong professional relationship and respect for each other as people (without all the mommy aspect or the "will they/won't they" angle) that their behaviour toward one another always felt earned and genuine all at once in different ways.
Maybe I make no sense but my point is that they're great partners to watch.

Now Dutch and Billings...it's new and generally fun.
Billings listing Dutch's flaws had me rolling. I didn't know he even bothered to observe his co-workers like that.

As for Dutch and Tina...errrr....however that goes I can't see myself invest in the storyline but ya know, with this show anything is possible.

Well maybe not anything. If there's a four toes statue, a food drop, or if Dutch gets a tattoo that says "he walks among us but he's not one of us" , I'll FTL jump of there like this. *snaps fingers*

Affiliate links disclaimer:

Clicking on the green links will direct you to a third-party Web site. Bloggers and staff writers are in no way affiliated with these links that are placed by an e-commerce specialist only after stories and posts have been published.